Sew along: Circle skirt: fashion meets math: African Wax skirts

February 14, 2021

Sew along: Circle skirt: fashion meets math: African Wax skirts

The idea

This awesome african wax had been in my stash for a while and was always ment for a circle skirt. I thought to make a full length maxi skirt at first, but it might be a bit much, so an 'over the knee' length it is. I had enough fabric left to make a skirt for my girl.

The pattern

A circle skirt.

Additional info:

size to measure.
Recommended fabrics: cottons. As it will be a pretty heavy skirt it is not very suitable for knits since these will stretch.
sewing is easy, cutting the circle requires some math
I did the math for an adult version here: and a kids version here.

The fabric

ca 3,1 meter African wax for my skirt
ca 0,5 meter African wax for my girls skirt (so a total of ca 4 yards)
some elastic waist band.

Cutting the fabric.

I did the math and plenty examples in the previous posts, so here is the math for this specific fabric.

Adult: A waist opening radius of 19 cm is a circumference of 120 cm. I take out 6 cm for seams and that leaves 114 cm. I will add elastic to a part in the back to make up the remaining waist measurements.

I added 1 cm seam allowance for the waistband, skirtlength is 72 and hem is 3 cm, which might be a bit long. I want to test the skirt to see how this fabric falls. Perhaps I make it a bit shorter.

Kids: The remaining piece is 50 cm. I fold it selvedge to selvedge this time. Waist opening radius is 10 cm and means an circumference of 63 cm, enough to fit over the hip. Again I need 1 cm for seam allowance to add a waistband, hem is 3 cm and that leaves a skirt length of 24 cm. (total 38 radius).

I am not sure if the kids version is long enough. I think I will add a layer.